Excavation of Atari E.T game cartridges given the go ahead

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The 1982 film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial was a hit with audiences and critics alike, eventually becoming one of the most iconic movies of the era. The official E.T. video game for Atari 2600 could not have been more different. It was so bad that Atari was left with millions of unsold cartridges and a massive hole in its bank account. What do you do when you can’t give a game away? You throw it away. The E.T. game was buried in a New Mexico landfill in 1983, but now Microsoft has gotten approval to dig the cartridges up.

So why dig up a terrible video game? The E.T Atari game has taken on an almost mythical status in the gaming world. Atari’s acquisition of the rights to produce an E.T. game was originally seen as a major coup. After all, how could a game based on the popular film not be a smash hit? Atari produced millions of copies for the Christmas 1982 shopping season, and the game initially sold well. However, all it really had going for it was the name recognition. The gameplay was repetitive and buggy, and the graphics were poor even for the Atari 2600.

As if trying desperately to hide its shame, Atari is said to have sent 10-20 truckloads of cartridges to the Alamogordo, New Mexico landfill where they were crushed and encased in cement before being buried. This story is so bizarre on a number of levels that it’s become something of an urban legend, and great fodder for an upcoming documentary series for Xbox Live. Microsoft is working with several production companies to film the dig and turn it into something you’d want to watch.

It was initially unclear if the New Mexico Environmental Protection Division would allow anyone to start poking around in the now closed landfill. After a year of wrangling, it has approved Microsoft’s plan with some conditions. It might take a little while to get everything lined up due to the levels of toxic chemicals in this old landfill, but it’s definitely happening now. After more than three decades of exile, E.T is finally coming home.